Eagle Pilots: Advice?

KombattWombatt · Feb 18, 2015

CMDRS,

I've been flying a viper but switched over to an eagle just to mix it up.
I love a lot about it. The cool paint job I got, the cockpit view, the look, the maneuverability...

But I'm having trouble finding a good loadout. I have plenty of credits. The two best setups I've found are...

A. Two beams and one dumbfire
B. Three multicannons

But each has a drawback.

With the beams and dumbfires, I have the firepower I want but with the low power I can't fit a shield cell. With the multicannons I lack the pop I need for bigger ships.

I've taken out pythons and fed drop ships with both, but anacondas are proving to be a problem.

Anyone got something to try that I'm missing?

LeetNoob · Feb 18, 2015

KombattWombatt said:
CMDRS,

I've been flying a viper but switched over to an eagle just to mix it up.
I love a lot about it. The cool paint job I got, the cockpit view, the look, the maneuverability...

But I'm having trouble finding a good loadout. I have plenty of credits. The two best setups I've found are...

A. Two beams and one dumbfire
B. Three multicannons

But each has a drawback.

With the beams and dumbfires, I have the firepower I want but with the low power I can't fit a shield cell. With the multicannons I lack the pop I need for bigger ships.

I've taken out pythons and fed drop ships with both, but anacondas are proving to be a problem.

Anyone got something to try that I'm missing?

Yes, a Viper! Joke, sorry.

I think the problem is the eagle is just too small to not have to make compromises. Have you tried one beam, one multi cannon and one dumbfire? Might not work with only two buttons per fire group, but if you can switch easily it might.

nikos · Feb 18, 2015

I used to run one beam up top and two cannons below, and was quite happy with the results...

KombattWombatt · Feb 18, 2015

Haven't tried that, but Im not sure that would give me the pop I want either. I prefer to have all my firepower available at the same time.

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nikos said:
I used to run one beam up top and two cannons below, and was quite happy with the results...

I considered that, but I've never been happy with mixing Lasers and cannons in that way. the difference in the... I'm not sure what to call it but "aiming boxes," I guess, is too far away and with an eagle always turning wouldn't be able to concentrate fire like I'd want.

nikos · Feb 18, 2015

KombattWombatt said:
I considered that, but I've never been happy with mixing Lasers and cannons in that way. the difference in the... I'm not sure what to call it but "aiming boxes," I guess, is too far away and with an eagle always turning wouldn't be able to concentrate fire like I'd want.

You are right, I forgot to add "gimballed" before cannons. This way you can fire all three.

Tarman · Feb 18, 2015

nikos said:
I used to run one beam up top and two cannons below, and was quite happy with the results...

I'm getting into Eagling lately, ended up with similar; it seems workable so far. Just attempting to gimbal the laser while leaving the guns fixed, see how that works for me. All fixed was keeping me from more alpha hits, seems like. Should I just go ahead and gimbal the claws too or will it be workable?

KombattWombatt · Feb 18, 2015

Ya I should have mentioned I'm stubborn and don't use gimballed. Just not as much fun.

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Guess I'm just a viper pilot. I'm okay with that.

Caspar · Feb 18, 2015

3 x cannons.

The.Doover · Feb 18, 2015

I've been debating heading back to my freeagle.

Does anyone bother with armour? Or is the hull so shockingly thin it's not worth having?

Cmdr Pli55ken · Feb 18, 2015

But I'm having trouble finding a good loadout.

My favorite one after experimenting a bit: Fixed beam up top. Gimbaled cannons below. Drops shields reasonably quickly and enough crunch power to stop ships from making a dash to hyperspace.

Raf von Thorn · Feb 18, 2015

Try top beam and two multicannons. You can easily stay close behind a conda thrusters, when none of his weapons can reach you and get his shield down with the beam. You can fire it indefinitely.

I love the Eagle. If it only was 10% faster...

CMDR Bungle · Feb 19, 2015

I posted two builds in this thread that both have a shield cell fitted: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=115910

Couple of things:

You can disable the cargo hatch to recover around 5% of power grid, which means you can go about 5% over the "deployed" power reading when fitting. Drawback to being so tight on power is that if you take damage to pwoer systems modules will start malfunctioning. When flying a small maneuverable ship though there's less chance of someone sniping your modules.

You don't need an "A" rated thruster, you only need the one for which the "optimal" mass is below the mass of your ship when fuelled.

"E" rated Sensors and Life Support always draw the least power, but "D" rated sensors and life support save you some mass for very little extra power, which might drop you down a thruster class and actually save power.

Chevy66 · Feb 19, 2015

The.Doover said:
I've been debating heading back to my freeagle.

Does anyone bother with armour? Or is the hull so shockingly thin it's not worth having?

I've got the Reactive Armour on mine, it does make surviving when the shields go down easier, I have gimballed beam on top and two multicannons. I can take down an NPC anaconda with it, but it does take a long time. If my sheild go down I keep boosting away till I'm not getting hit, then full power to shields and fly around erratically till they come back up

I virtually never get blown up using those tactics